Shiori’s Revelation

Ryo stood in the midst of the wreckage, his breathing still ragged from the fight, but his mind was racing. The woman—Shiori—had just saved his life. They had barely escaped the clutches of the beast, but now, there was something else in the air. A question that had been gnawing at the back of his mind for the past few minutes.

Out of nowhere, Ryo blurted it out.

"What's your name?"

Shiori blinked, clearly taken aback by the suddenness of the question.

"…Shiori," she answered, almost cautiously.

Ryo froze. His heartbeat picked up, pounding in his chest.

Shiori.

He knew that name.

It was a side character, one who barely made it through a few chapters of the novel. A character who had no lasting impact on the plot—someone who existed only to show some background for the main story, then quickly faded into obscurity.

Ryo's mind scrambled. The puzzle pieces started to click into place, but the more he thought about it, the more disorienting it became.

He needed confirmation.

"Are you sure?" he asked, his voice more urgent than he intended. "Your full name—what is it?"

Shiori raised an eyebrow, clearly confused. "Shiori Nakamura."

The weight of the answer hit Ryo like a truck.

She was real.

The side character from the novel—she was here.

Ryo's heart pounded, and he took a step back, his head spinning.

This couldn't be real. But it was.

Shiori turned to Haruto, who was still breathing heavily, clearly not understanding the tension between them. He stared at Ryo, who seemed to be in some sort of shock.

"Ryo, what's going on?" Haruto asked, his voice full of concern.

Ryo ignored him. His mind was still racing, piecing together everything.

If Shiori was here, then that meant…

The novel's main character, Kael Draven, had to be somewhere too.

He'd never been able to shake off the strange feeling that there was more to this world than just the game, and this was the confirmation he had been waiting for.

"Shiori…" Ryo muttered under his breath.

She turned toward him, her expression cautious. "What? Is something wrong?"

Ryo could barely bring himself to look at her. His mind raced through the events of the novel, trying to remember the details he had read so many times.

After the first scenario in the book—the one where Kael Draven was forced to participate and began his journey—Ryo remembered the path Kael took.

It wasn't just a battle for survival. The novel took a drastic turn after that, with Kael disappearing from the main storyline for a while, chasing after something he didn't fully understand. A distant goal, one that was tied to the game's mysteries and its creators.

It wasn't just Kael Draven—there were other characters, side characters like Shiori, who played smaller roles in the grand scheme of things but had still left an impression. Now that Ryo was here, it only made sense that the novel's world was colliding with his reality.

But if Shiori was here, why wasn't Kael?

Was he also somewhere in this game-world, hidden like everything else?

Ryo tried to fight back the urge to explain everything to Shiori, but the system's rule still weighed heavily on his mind:

He couldn't tell anyone about the novel—not even about Kael Draven.

"Ryo, you're acting weird," Haruto said, his voice tinged with concern.

Ryo's gaze snapped back to him, trying to focus.

He quickly regained control of his thoughts, forcing himself to be calm.

"No, I'm fine," Ryo said, shaking his head. "I just…"

His eyes flicked to Shiori again, then to the bloodstained hallway. The truth was too much to take in.

"Do you… Do you remember what happened after the first scenario?" Ryo asked, not entirely sure what he was trying to confirm.

Shiori blinked. "After the first scenario?"

Ryo felt the blood drain from his face.

She didn't know.

Of course, she wouldn't. This wasn't the novel.

In the book, after the first trial, Kael Draven had gone on a solo journey, searching for something he couldn't understand. It was an integral part of the plot—something that would eventually lead him to discovering more about the game and its creators.

But Shiori didn't know any of this. She wasn't supposed to.

Ryo quickly masked his disappointment, pushing the thought to the back of his mind.

He had to remember: he was living this reality, not reading about it. The novel wasn't a blueprint for how things had to play out. Anything could change now.

"So… what's your next move?" Ryo asked, trying to shift the conversation away from the novel.

Shiori eyed him for a moment, her expression unreadable. "I don't know. Survive, I guess. That's what we all do here."

Ryo nodded slowly, though his mind was still reeling from the fact that Shiori—a side character—was standing before him. He couldn't shake the feeling that Kael was close. But where?

He had to find him.

Ryo had to find Kael Draven before anything else happened.

But he couldn't tell anyone about the novel. Not Haruto, not Shiori—no one.

He was the only one who knew the truth.

The system still watched him, and every choice he made could shift the balance of this reality. Ryo couldn't afford to make any wrong moves. He had to find out what was really going on.

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To Be Continued…